Synopses & Reviews
From Daisy Miller to Isabel Archer to Maisie, female characters dominate the work of Henry James and, often, critical discussion of James's work. Donatella Izzo shifts that discussion to a different, more revealing, plane in this original interpretation of James's short fiction. By redirecting criticism from a biographical emphasis to a focus on James's engagement with the issues of representation, Izzo shows how these short stories actually question and investigate the cultural and ideological practices that produced women, both in literature and in society. Portraying the Lady brings to light the experimental quality and inherent consistency of stories that have received little critical attention, all of which revolve around ideas at the core of the cultural representation of femininity at the time. Izzo shows how James, by testing and stretching these ideas in his imagery and plots, exposed and exploded the perverse logic and the ultimate implications of such culturally shared versions of femininity, thus revealing their oppressive quality for women and laying bare literature's complicity in reproducing and circulating them. Exposing James's texts as sensitive registers of women's roles during the Victorian-Edwardian era, this book demonstrates that his texts make readers aware of how those stereotypes operated. Blending literary, art, and feminist criticism with narratological analysis and postmodern theory, this groundbreaking work restores a formal awareness to James studies within the wider theoretical concerns of feminist, gender, and cultural critiques.
Review
"In this thoughtful and incisive analysis, Donatella Izzo explores and elucidates Jamess treatment of the feminine and his dramatization of the attitudes and views toward women in his day. . . . Reading Portraying the Lady was rather like the experience of traveling by rail to a destination with which one is familiar, but by a route that was totally new and remarkably insightful. Izzos itinerary was extremely interesting and significant, and example of how a journey of intellectual adventure can illuminate and inspire even though the point of arrival at journeys end is already known."—Richard P. Gage, Studies in the Novel Richard P. Gage
Review
"Donatella Izzos multi-layered, methodologically complex approach to Henry Jamess short stories makes a provocative and satisfying study. . . . Izzos wide ranging, eclectic use of critics and theorists, combined with her own prodigious knowledge of and attention to Jamess fiction, produces a wealth of insight and prodigality of spirited readings. Even Jamesians not concerned with the short fiction under scrutiny here will find Izzos book of interest."—Sara deSaussure Davis, South Atlantic Review Studies in the Novel
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
About the Author
Donatella Izzo is a professor of American language and literature at the Istituto Universitario Orientale in Naples. She is the editor of four volumes of criticism and the author of three scholarly books.